Tuesday, July 19, 2016

'Asians in Hollywood' to advocate for AAPI who work in motion picture industry

Asians In Hollywood - a new voice for Asians in the motion picture industry.

By Louis ChanReprinted from AsAm NewsA GROUP of Asian/Americans working in Hollywood are staying united after the controversy over #OscarsSoWhite and the Chris Rock Academy Awards sketch during which he used stereotypes about Asian/Americans in his monologue.

They call themselves Asians in Hollywood and launched a Facebook page this month that has already generated nearly 1,700 likes and also have started a twitter account.

So far both the Facebook page and Twitter account have concentrated on applauding the successes of Asian Americans in Hollywood and promoting their work.

The group is building on its efforts following meetings with the Academy in May which included president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and CEO Dawn Hudson.

Still in its infancy, one of the group’s first big successes was getting recognized by the Hollywood media

Even of more significance was the invitation to 70 Asians and Asian/Americans to join the Academy as voting members. They were part of the 673 people invited out of which 272 were people of color.

Among the members are Arthur Dong, Laura Kim, Freida Lee Mock, David Magdael, Marcus Hu, Jodi Long, Janet Yang, France Nuyen, Maysie Hoy, Peter Kwong, Teddy Zee, Don Hall, Chris Tashima and George Takei who all attended the meeting in May with the Academy.

“We don’t want to be a finger-pointing group,” said Hollywood producer Yang (People v Larry Flynt) to the Hollywood Reporter There’s enough of that. We want to help find positive solutions to a systemic problem. Most people, in our opinion, are not intentionally demeaning in their portrayal of Asians or in overlooking Asian actors for roles. It is the result of a hundred years of Hollywood making films from a particular point of view. If we don’t change the perception of us in entertainment and media, we will forever be sidelined.”